Supporters of senior party leader IK Jadeja gathered at the party headquarters in Gandhinagar and raised slogans against the BJP.

The party had announced the list of 70 candidates on Friday in which 11 sitting MLAs have been dropped.

Ahmedabad: A day after the BJP announced its first list of 70 candidates for next month's Gujarat assembly elections, the party found itself facing protests from supporters of a senior leader while a sitting legislator from Saurashtra resigned with a scathing break-up message.

Supporters of senior party leader IK Jadeja gathered at the party headquarters in Gandhinagar and raised slogans against the BJP. Mr Jadeja's supporters were angered at him not being given a ticket from Wadhwan constituency in Saurashtra.

The party had announced the list of 70 candidates on Friday and the only sitting legislator dropped was Varshaben Doshi from Wadhwan. Mr Jadeja was tipped to get the ticket from this seat. Instead, a candidate of the Patidar community - which has raised a campaign against the ruling party over a demand for reservation in government jobs and colleges - was chosen.

In another setback, a prominent leader of the Koli community from Saurashtra and sitting MLA from Kodinar, Jetha Solanki, submitted his resignation from the party. Though the candidate for the seat is yet to be declared, it was widely speculated that he was being dropped.

Jetha Solanki has resigned from the BJP, as an MLA and also as the parliamentary secretary

Alleging that Dalits have been facing "atrocities" under BJP rule, the Dalit leader also said that he was "unhappy" after being told by the party that he will not get a ticket this time, news agency PTI reported.

"I have resigned from the BJP, as an MLA and also as the parliamentary secretary. I have decided to quit as the party has stopped listening to my representations," he was quoted as saying.

Mr Solanki's constituency, however, was not among the 36 tickets that the BJP announced on Saturday in its second wave of candidates.

The list, seen as of those seats where the BJP believes it will have to put up a fight against the Congress, had as many as 19 new faces while the rest, including those defeated in the 2012 elections, have been repeated. Eleven sitting MLAs have been dropped.